Ok, Ok, I know that based on prior entries (Aug 12, 2004) you think I let those in-laws (or whatever they are) off too easy this time... Soo, here (along with some pictures donated by my mom) are my always brutal and always honest criticisms:

Joanna and Allison in front of the famous sun...



Joanna on Ice!


GREAT PICTURE!! (Joanna)


So alike! Appropriately named Peter2 and Peter1 (Allison also pictured)
Note: Their facial expressions are *great*, if enlarged (click on picture)


On the lift: Allison and Joanna


Ok, so where's the criticism? I needed to establish that picture first. Now, for the facts:
1. The girls are 10 years old.
2. My mom reserved seperate rooms (ie. twins in one, parents in another, directly across the hall from one another)
3. Lisa (Twin's mom) was afraid the girls would feel uncomfortable sleeping in seperate rooms from the parents, and wanted us to change the reservations so that they could all share one room with two beds. We couldn't change the reservations. =(
4. The night of their arrival, Lisa slept with (guess who? her favorite!) Joanna, and Allison shared a room with her father.
5. At dinner (in the hotel), the children had to be escorted to the bathroom by their parents. I'll give you one guess as to which parent went with which kid (if you need help, read #4)
6. Now for my final fact: On the chair lift, the kids got to ride seperate from their parents.


Now for my Commentary! (Numbers correspond with numbers listed above)
1. This is old enough to get some independence.
2. It was cheaper to get the rooms this way.
3. They are 10 years old! And there are two of them! They should be able to handle some nights alone, right across the hall from their parents. As Chris stated, "What do they do at home?! Do they all sleep in the same room!?" (The answer of course is no)
4. Rediculous!
5. Again, 10 years old! They can't go to the bathroom on their own!? I guess it's a hotel and they don't know their way around, but still! If I were their mom, I'd be like "Go try to find it, and if you can't, then come back and I'll help you find it." It's a very safe hotel and I swear the bathroom was RIGHT down the hall.
6. This seems extremeley inconsistant to me. For such a protective mother, I would think chair lifts were more dangerous than a night across the hall, and a bathroom! I mean really! If you are horsing around on a chairlift and you fall off, it gets serious really fast! But frankly, I was being shoved on an airplane alone at 6 or 7, so gimme a break! They can handle it, if given the extra leeway. The sad part about all of it is: They've grown up thinking they can't, so they are just as paranoid as their protective mother, and quite dependant on her for the "needed" support.

I guess families are just different, but this one seems a little extreme. Side Note: Their bat mitzvah is already planned! Jan 2009!!!!! 2009! That's 3 years away! Most people don't even plan weddings that far in advance!

On Friday, after classes, Chris and I drove to Berkeley. We met my cousin, Grace for dinner. She was in town for a Debate Competition!
Here is my sister, Grace, and me:


We ate dinner at Everett & Jones BBQ in Oakland... My dad really liked his ribs:


Then it was off to Sun Valley, Idaho! This time with some more members of the family... yes, those terrible twins from the East...

They didn't make it when they were supposed to. Stupid Delta Airlines was delayed getting to their connection city and the plane from there wouldn't wait for them. In fact, they flew from Newark to Atlanta and arrived at 5:29pm. The plane to Boise, which was supposed to leave at 5:32 actually left the gate EARLY at 5:29pm!!! Rediculous. It was the last flight to Boise, but Delta refused to pay for a hotel room for them. And they refused to give them their luggage, saying it was in a secure storage facility! They made it, exactly 24 hours later...

Here are some pictures before we went out to dinner on Sunday night...
Chris and I


Cheesy picture of my mom and dad...


And here is the other side of my family. My half brother Pete, his wife Lisa, and the very faternal twins, Allison (straight hair) and Joanna (curly).


We asked Chris to see if he could spot who was the mother's favorite twin. After two days with them, he told us that there wasn't much (and it is less apparent than it was before), but he guessed correctly that Joanna was the favorite.

Last but not least, the skiing was WONDERFUL. Beautiful snow, nice weather (really cold, but decent), and fairly empty slopes. It has to be heaven when this is the view as you swish back and forth down the hill:

I have really been enjoying my classes this quarter. (Maybe because I know the end is near.) I am taking two boring Econ classes for my major - Poverty & Public Policy as well as Economic Analysis of the Law. Both are mildly interesting, but I certainly wouldn't choose to take them.
I am also taking a swimming class (for 0 credits), that is teaching me how to swim! I'm in level 4, even though I should probably be in level 2 or 3, but the teacher is letting me struggle to keep up with the 4th level class. It's a really small class, about 6 students, so I get a lot of one on one attention, which is good. My main problem (other than learning these strokes for the first time) is the same problem I have with golf: I try too hard. Both sports, swimming and golf, work best when the motions are smooth, slow, and graceful. I try to go as fast and as hard as I can! The teacher tells me to slow down and relax during every class.
My other favorite class, is my Physics class. Don't let that word scare you. It's a Conceptual Physics class, which means we only go over the ideas, not the math! I call it my Physics for 8th graders class, because it is similar to the properties of physics that you would learn in middle school. (Light, what is an atom, etc) The teacher is really fun and very smart. He's always referring to the accelerator at Stanford (where he spends most of his time) and saying "we" found this, etc.. And I know he truly means "we", that he was personally involved with these discoveries, etc. That's so awesome! He also always does all these cool experiments in class everyday. Today, he demonstrated pressure, by laying on a bed of nails and having someone pound on him with a sledge hammer!!!
Here are some pictures that I took with my cell phone (hence the poor quality):

Here is my teacher, showing us that they are real, sharp nails.


Here is Prof. Schalk laying down on the bed of nails.


Then, a smaller bed of nails was placed across his chest, with a cinder block on top of that (hard to see, but it is light gray and being held in place by the man's finger). Notice his protection over his vital areas - a plastic dome to protect his face, and a wood board over his umm.. lower region. He said that he learned to do this from experience of the cinder block breaking and falling in the wrong direction.. Ouch!


Then came the sledge hammer! Whap! And the cement block broke into pieces! I think this shot is right after the hammer hit, you can sort of see the block falling into pieces.


Here is the bed of nails and the broken cinder block. My teacher was, of course, OK, and continued with his lecture of the day: Liquids. I don't know what pressure had to do with liquids, but that's ok.


I just thought this was one of the cooler classes I've had as a college student, so I wanted to share it! =)